The Left Hand of God
by Kat Morning
Summary: Kaoru's not the only one who tracks in trouble into otherwise quiet lives. Some wars don't end. They're just the longest ceasefires in history. Until they find you.


I've been promising people Symapthy-verse fic for ages, and finally got this thing finished up, so here it is. This takes place directly after "Sympathy for the Devil", so if you haven't read that yet … go read it, or you'll likely be confused.

As always, I disclaim rights to the Rurouni Kenshin characters, and only claim the world and situations. I also disclaim the quote from the Book of Isaiah, though that's pretty firmly in the public domain.

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**The Left Hand of God**

"You lived in a shack." Kaoru said, pulling her horse's reins back and clutching at them as the dappled mare danced a bit in place, not wanting to stop on the unsettled ground they stood on. Kenshin's hands vanished from around her waist, and she felt a shiver of cool air against her back as he slipped off the saddle blanket from behind her. A massive tawny dog padded up and blurred into Sanosuke.

"Oi!" Sanosuke protested. "Kenshin landed a hillside on it!"

"Sano," Kaoru swung her leg over the horse's neck and slid to the ground, wrapping the reins around her hand as she led the way to the splintered remains of the cabin's walls and roof and picked up a board in her hands, "this wood looks like it was housing a metropolis of termites. It was a shack. Kenshin just put it out of its misery."

"But it was home for a time, Miss Kaoru," Kenshin said quietly, stepping past her and crouching down, his pale hands sifting through the debris and drying mud.

Kaoru blinked and sighed, smiling at him a bit as she dropped next to Kenshin, sliding her hand down the leather reins to hold them awkwardly in one hand as she poked at the small pile of very muddy things he was unearthing. Most of it, to her eyes, could be replaced, but Kenshin was still working his way deeper and Sano had taken up a rougher dig some distance away. "What are you looking for?"

"My sword," he answered, still bent on his search. "Sano's guns. They are useful for those times a bounty does not listen to peaceful reason when asked to surrender," he paused, sank sharply-edged claws into a length of soggy timber, and heaved. It sloughed off mucky clumps of dirt and rocks as it slurped out of the ground. Kaoru dropped the reins and stepped forward to help, bracing her hands beside Kenshin's and helping him shove the heavy timber away. Kenshin crouched next to the marginally drier hollow revealed while Kaoru recaptured her horse and subtly flexed her wings to ease the protesting ache blooming in her shoulders. Kenshin pretended not to notice. "And they have some sentimental value."

She made a noncommittal sound, leading her horse to a broken shaft of wood anchored in the mud. She shoved at it, and found it must be considerably longer than what protruded outward, because it did not move. Satisfied, Kaoru looped the reins around it and tied them off, then rejoined Kenshin. He had uncovered a crushed trunk in the hollow they had unearthed, and was sorting the contents and setting aside what was salvageable. Kaoru regarded the collection and silently added a few more things to her next shopping list.

Kenshin pushed himself back to his feet, and looked around them with a slight frown of concentration, summoning up his memory of how the building should have looked, and overlaying that memory on the shattered remnants they were standing in. The house had stood nearly flush with the hillside behind it, a refuge for optimistic gold hunters, with a small-scale dredge and sluice trough a short walk away beside the small stream that fed both it and the cabin. The contraption stood largely unharmed but long unused as the water bubbled by unhindered. Kenshin remembered being tossed into it at one point with a wince, but it had done more damage to him than he had done to it.

"So what happened that made you drop a hillside on your house?" Kaoru finally asked, gesturing around them.

"Because barrows are not created just to honor the dead, Miss Kaoru," Kenshin answered, eyes brightening with triumph as he pried a shovel out of the mud and led her closer to the magic-churned hill. The grass and topsoil had shaken loose and slumped forward, like a crested wave of mud and debris, burying everything in its path and leaving behind jagged scars and jutting rocks with unsettled dirt clinging to them in precarious and ghastly clumps. "They are also created to protect the newly dead and incarcerate the undead. And … it seemed a good idea at the time, that it did."

Kaoru shifted back, stepping away from the wrecked cabin and hastily created "barrow" with caution and narrowed eyes. Kenshin stood and followed her, allowing his steps to tap off some of the clinging mud adhered to his boots and trouser cuffs. "It is sealed, Miss Kaoru," he assured her, half turning and sketching a sigil in the air, the afterimage glowing with a spark of captured magic. The sigil runes flared then faded, leaving a ghostly afterimage hanging in the air and mirror-like traceries of themselves spreading over the ground. The ground lay still beneath the now-visible seals and Kaoru blinked with a touch of surprise before tilting her head to study them curiously.

"You have your magic back," she noted, sharp eyes flicking to her companion. Kenshin smiled softly and lowered his head enough that his hair shaded his eyes.

"Some of it," he admitted. "Much of it was sacrificed to create these seals and will be a long time in returning. This one cannot replenish it by exposure to the moon, or an evening spent with a crowd, that I cannot."

Kaoru nodded, amusement sparking in her eyes as she glanced towards Sanosuke foraging in the near distance and nodded to acknowledge the comment on her own abilities. A stray breeze rippled through the patches of grass and trees that hadn't been trampled or splintered by Kenshin and Sano's battle with the creature now sealed beneath the ground, and disturbed the glowing seals, causing them to wink out of sight and Kenshin lowered his hand. His shoulders relaxed slightly, surrendering the tension that came with magic working.

"Tell me of it," Kaoru said, laying a hand on his shoulder. Kenshin stiffened slightly, taken aback at the sudden contact, eyes meeting hers and finding a mix of curiosity and compassion looking back. Her smile brightened an instant later and Kenshin found himself agreeing.

"It was a better night to hide from the storm than brave it, and Sano and I were glad we didn't have any contracts to send us into the Outlands in the midst of it..."

. o O o .

The storm howled outside the walls of their cabin, buffeting the small building with wind and lashing it with rain. Torn leaves and small branches thumped and scratched at the wood, and rain worked its way around the oilskin nailed across the windows against the onslaught. Within the cabin was warmed by a squat stove, crouching on close-fitted stones in the middle of the room, its front grate glowing with red and yellow flames. Lanterns, shaped clear glass sheltering the oil-soaked wicks from sudden drafts, illuminated the rest of the room, casting light on the pages of Kenshin's book as he read, ensconced in a chair piled deep with tanned furs, and glinting off the oiled metal of Sanosuke's rifle where it lay partial disassembled in front of him.

The building shuddered as a gush of the storm rushed past it, causing Sanosuke and Kenshin to look up at the walls until they settled. A wail slashed through the storm, torn from a throat in a way that had nothing to do with the wind. Kenshin looked up at the shriek now lost in the wind, his eyes glinting in the flicker of the lantern's light as a stray bit of wind worked its way through the rough-chinked walls of the cabin, and a slithering scratching whispered across the wood from outside. He set his book down with slow deliberateness and reached for the hilt of the sakabatou propped nearby. As his fingers closed around the wrapped hilt, he heard the clack of Sano reassembling his rifle.

"Sounds like trouble."

Kenshin nodded, keeping his attention tuned outward as he flowed to his feet. Sanosuke pulled the rifle's lever and chambered a shot, glancing back at his partner before taking a cautious step towards the door, Winchester held loosely at his shoulder. The gusting wind swung the door wide as Sano unlatched it and stepped back to aim the barrel of his rifle into the darkness. Rain splashed against the pitted wood of the floor, collecting into pools that morphed into rivulets and crept further in as the door cracked against the outer wall.

Several long breaths passed before chanced a glance back at Kenshin, who hadn't moved, and lowered his rifle a bit. He took a step forward, moving further out of the cabin's light and peering out into the night. Branches along the nearby creek thrashed in the storm, illuminated by flashes of lightning, but nothing living, undead, or animated moved in the darkness. Sanosuke shook himself, feeling ghostly fur rippling just out of appearance, and feeling the tightness in his joints and ligaments as instinct urged him to surrender control to his werebeast. His hands were already reforming, knuckles thickening to accommodate thickening claws that caught and traced the grooves of the rifle in his hands.

White robes, belted by a rusted chain and sickle moon clasp slid through the juncture of the wall and ceiling behind Kenshin's back. The temperature in the room lowered steadily as the fire's heat escaped through the gaping front door, and the wind stirred the monster's matted grey hair from her long pointed ears. Her eyes bled, gore dripping from black sockets over pale skin before dripping to the floor in semi-congealed drops. The blood dried in the relative warmth of the cabin's main room, darkening it to a rusty crimson that cracked and flaked along her cheeks. She glided forward, a soundless wraith with bloodless lips peeling back from needle-sharp teeth in a rictus grin and a taloned hand reached out, ghosting through Kenshin's hair, trailing bits of it across his neck as well as slicing through the leather cord that held it bound.

Kenshin ducked away from the touch, sakabatou arcing from its sheath and through the air where the phantasm floated, his eyes sparked molten gold in the firelight as she vanished. Sano's warning cry as he pulled his rifle to his shoulder, leveling it at a point beyond Kenshin had Kenshin twisting to see the creature fade back into view.

She lifted her gaunt hands – claw-like nails curling rigidly into her scarred palms – threw her head back and wailed. The wail shattered the night, crushing the noise of the storm beneath a wave of sound and magic that buffeted the two bounty hunters and left them staggering. Blood dripped from Sano's ears and his rifle dropped from nerveless fingers, going off as it clattered to the hard floor. The bullet ripped past, shattering a lamp hanging from an overhead hook, and sending a shower of oil and glass and twisted metal down on them.

The banshee shrieked in infernal glee and flew around the room, her hands slashing through the oilskin with merciless abandon, tearing it from the cabin's windows, and exposing them to more of the force of the gale outside.

With a low snarl, Sanosuke scooped his rifle back up, cocked and fired at the banshee. The shot connected, throwing her back and into the far wall where she connected with a sickening crack and stiffened before sliding bonelessly to the floor and vanishing into tendrils of sickly-white mist. Sanosuke lowered the rifle slowly, distrustfully, and moved forward cautiously, kneeling down beside Kenshin.

"I think it's gone," Sano hazarded, voice roughened by a canine growl and hands now thick with calluses bordering on pads, and fully-formed clicking restlessly against the rifle's stock. He reached down to nudge Kenshin's shoulder with his free hand. Outside, the old growth trees creaked and groaned ominously in the intensifying fury of the storm, and the tang of rainwater and lightning-carried ozone washed over and around them. "Can't smell much; too much rain."

Kenshin stirred and pulled his knees underneath him. He had been much closer to the banshee's wail, and his voice carried an undercurrent of both pain and fury. "It's not gone."

Sanosuke started to curse and dragged Kenshin upright, then released him, trusting the other man would be able to stand on his own. "Which direction is it in?" Kenshin swayed for an instant – head bowed and hair covering his eyes with his hands curled loosely at his side – before he steadied and brought one clawed hand up to rub the palm over his face. "Kenshin?" Sanosuke tried again, breaking the ominous pause with a worried note. "Kenshin?"

Kenshin straightened fluidly, finally allowing his hand to fall away from his face and Sano felt the hackles on the back of his neck rise, and ghostly fur solidifying into a tawny pelt as instinct took his own transformation a step closer to completion. Kenshin's eyes had shifted from molten gold to crimson, burning with an infernal light as Sanosuke backed away towards the door. "Battousai."

Kenshin's pupils vanished under the red glow, and the devil lord reached for Kenshin's blade. Sano retreated another step and caught up against the door, the rough wood rattling at the impact and digging splinters into his back. "Kenshin!" The devil's sword hissed from its sheath and Sano's claws bit into the wood. It was a sakabatou, so it probably wouldn't kill him unless Battousai flipped it over during a strike – but it would hurt like hell if it hit him. "Kenshin, snap out of it!"

A flicker of gold flashed through the crimson before snuffing out and Sano started cursing. Battousai was almost free of the locks Kenshin used to keep the devil at bay, and somewhere in there Sanosuke knew his partner was shackled. It was risky intentionally dragging the attention of a being far more powerful than you were, but breaking the devil's concentration was the only thing that could give Kenshin a chance. Sanosuke bared fangs, fisted his clawed hands, and drove them backwards, bringing a shower of splintered wood and a blast of rain-sodden wind down on himself. He stumbled backwards into the storm-lashed night, twisting as he fell and landed heavily on his side. Rain soaked through short tawny fur instantly and Sano struggled upright, paws slipping on mud as he wiggled out of the remains of his clothing and put some distance between himself and the monsters behind him.

Hands, Sanosuke scrambled for the thought, he needed hands for this and a voice capable of more than barks and growls if he had any hope of talking Kenshin through whatever had drawn Battousai to the surface. With a wrench, he tore instinct away, pushing it back deep inside himself to forcing his human side back into dominance. But the wind continued to tear at fur not skin, bringing Sanosuke to a skidding halt, ears pricked to listen for Battousai's near-soundless pursuit. A growl tore from Sanosuke's throat as he tried the change again and couldn't. The clean adrenaline rage of a cornered animal burned through his veins, blunting the chill of the night as he finally recognized it: the stagnancy of a form seal. Damn.

Squelching steps of claws in mud dragged Sano's attention back as Battousai walked casually into the storm. The air around him shifted, and his back bowed upward, the thick, sodden cotton of his shirt tearing as his dark wings stretched behind him, catching the wind in their leathery membranes and casting splotches of blood in with the rain. The hackles along Sanosuke's neck straightened as he instinctively dropped into a crouch.

"Hellhound," Battousai said, quiet voice carrying through the night as crimson eyes glittered with subtle malevolence in the darkness. Sano sputtered indignantly, the growl he hadn't even noticed starting choked into startled silence. Battousai sounded surprisingly ... sane, and even cultured. Despite the years he'd spent partnered with Himura Kenshin, Sanosuke had never been face to face with the former General of Hell. Battousai lifted his face, felt the rain and wind lash it and looked upward at the temporary illumination of lighting overhead. "The mortal world? Or the illusion of it, perhaps. In either case, it has been a long time since I walked this plane."

_'Not long enough,' _Sano growled in his mind, backing away on cautious paws. The rain lightened and thunder rolled overhead. The quiet rush of the water sluice, overlain by the sheeting of the rain was behind him, along with the creaking of the trees that lined the stream. He wondered if dropping the rather unmaintained and rickety contraption on top of the devil would be enough to snap Kenshin back into control, if it would slow him down at all, or if it would just piss him off enough to cast off the shroud of civility and end the weredog with all the dire speed of the Hiten.

Battousai stilled suddenly, and Sano's ears pricked forward. Footsteps, deliberate foosteps sounding like a legion on march, were approaching, and within the darkness of the storm, a point of shining light was growing.

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn."

The shining figure, pulling every iota of light available in the storm-lashed to himself and reflecting it back magnified. Wings unfolded behind him, the long feathers shifting with a rustling sound as the wind tugged at them. His voice was measured, deliberate, and restrained, but the near grin twisting his lips held an edge of triumphant insanity, and his eyes appeared fever bright.

"How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low. You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'"

Light flashed above them, catching on the polished length of a sword as the angel drew the silken covering from his weapon and let it fall to the churned mud of the ground. "But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. And the end of your antiquity is come."

Battousai turned, facing the angelic being that approached with measured deliberateness. "Yukishiro."

The angel smiled, a sinister tilt to his lips, and nodded in acknowledgment. "Battousai."

_'What the hell?!'_ Sano again tried the twist of will that forced his body back into a human form. It was like pushing against a stone wall that had somehow been erected between his two forms, forcing him to stay locked in the form of a beast. And there was a battle brewing.

Oh, he knew of the Angelic Host. You didn't grow up in the shadow of the devil's mountain without knowing something about the Outer Realms' War, and knowing that your something was a lot more true than the legends told around hearths and campfires to frighten children, or as speculation on the past. Any of the Host showing up was bad news, but Yukishiro looked like an angel of destruction, and if he'd been actually _sent_... then the shaky truce between the two self-exiles from Hell and the Host had crumbled.

Another flash of light cracked above them, and when it passed the banshee floated beside the angel, a tattered phantasm of death; her clothing torn to expose part of her damaged chest. The ichor dripping from her eyes and body fell black and wet, thinning to brackish red from the fall of rain soaking all of them. Sano snarled at her, hackles up as he stalked forward, slinking along the ground until he stood only a few paces behind Battousai. The devil's clawed hand reached out, a silent command to stop, and lowered back to his side when Sanosuke halted.

"What do you want of us?" Battousai asked quietly.

"Have the memories of the fallen soul you're possessing started returning yet, Battousai?" Yukishiro taunted. "Or do you have him so chained under your domination that his existence is extinguished? Your kind are the bogeymen of this reborn world. The Host has every right to remove the final vestiges of your taint from it."

Battousai tilted his head slightly, mantling his wings to make a wash of collected rainwater slide off of them before allowing them to resettle. "You are not here on behalf of the Host."

"You have the audacity to assume that?" the angel demanded, lifting a hand to impatiently push sodden white spikes of hair out of his dark eyes. "I'm planning to kill you," Yukishiro told him flatly. "To erase you from this world. You'll no longer wander this plane or any other. You chose exile, I'm completing it. The banshee is draining you. As her blood falls, so does your strength."

"It is convenient you told me that," Battousai whispered, thumb flicking out the blade he held from its sheath a breath before he vanished, leaving suspended drops of rain hanging motionless in the air for an instant before falling. Battousai flickered back into sight, flipped blade crashing against the angel's sword, throwing sparks into the darkness inches away from the banshee's flesh.

"Ending her won't end the drain, Battousai." The devil's eyes narrowed and Yukishiro threw him out of their locked contest with a heave.

_Lie._ A quiet brush of intuition told him. Even a crazed member of the Host would not protect a faerie that regularly preyed on humanity out of altruism or gratitude. Yukishiro simply didn't want the game to end before he had evened the field enough to destroy Battousai. The banshee wailed, causing both angel and devil to reel away, steel blades shrieking as they ground against each other before tearing apart. A mass of dark fur leapt past Battousai, snarling as it passed _through _the fading afterimage of the banshee.

"Track her," Battousai ordered, not removing his attention from Yukishiro. "Even angels can lie."

Yukishiro's mouth thinned, and he swept forward, forcing Battousai's attention away from the hound and into holding back the angel's blade. Sanosuke leapt backward, claws raking the mud as a growl rumbled from his throat. Sano's ears pricked up and he willed part of the magic bottled behind the wall shutting him away from his other form forward. His vision sharpened, throwing the world into colorful focus as it compensated for the diminished vision of his beast.

His eyes glinted with an infernal light as he picked through the scents of brimstone, ozone, and fae blood magic until he caught a trace of coppery blood hanging in the air, intensifying when he turned towards the dark silhouette of the cabin in the near distance. Muscle bunched under skin and sodden fur as he leapt forward.

Battousai glanced toward the werehound, attention divided for a moment, before his eyes narrowed and he slid beneath Yukishiro's blade, vanishing from sight. He reappeared at Sanosuke's side, blurring into visibility as he slowed to keep pace. Sano's closest ear twisted towards Battousai before swiveling forward again, returning to the hunt.

An ear-shattering crack and flare of intense light split the ground, splintering the earth into jagged shards. Battousai's eyes flashed and his hand clamped down on a sudden pain slashing across his side and through the membrane of the wings behind him. Slick blood joined the drip of rain down his skin, washing heat over his hand.

The prickle of rising hair across his neck spurred Battousai to throw himself forward an instant before another crackling bolt of electricity crashed into the ground. The wounds tore open further, and Battousai took a deep breath, forcing the lethargy left by the banshee's drain away and feeling it pull harder as his blood fueled it.

Yukishiro's sword whistled through the air in the next moment, taking advantage of the devil's distraction to finish the battle. Battousai spun, wings flaring for balance and caught the angelic blade, hand biting into the cotton wrapping to the pebbled skin beneath as crackling arcs of lightning danced down the length of the steel. Pain tore across his nerves, darkening his vision and deep inside, Battousai felt something wrench free.

. o O o .

Kenshin watched his vision shift as he forced the devil's presence back down into the further reaches of his mind and pulled a labored breath into his lungs. The night looked darker, especially as the dazzle from Yukishiro's lightning faded from his vision. With a twist, he yanked himself away from the shining being bristling with hatred and collided heavily with Sanosuke's stunned form. Sanosuke let out a pained huff at the impact, but scrambled back to his feet immediately, leaving Kenshin half sprawled in the mud.

Yukishiro paused at the relatively clumsy movement, before advancing more cautiously. Kenshin curled his hands into the mud and flung it at the angel, drawing an involuntary curse from the being when the unexpected clod attack struck his eyes. Kenshin used the distraction to pull himself upright, wiping the slippery muck off his hand as he pulled on Battousai's power and sketched a glyph in the air.

The glyph snatched up Kenshin and Sanosuke with a wrench, pulling them out of existence for an instant before dumping them unceremoniously at the very edges of its power. The two landed heavily and their feet sank into the grass-flecked mud. Kenshin felt his knees impact the mud and saw Sanosuke out of the corner of his vision stay on his feet for a moment longer before his legs folded beneath him.

The wind was quieter here, blocked by the bulk of the hill their cabin was built up against, and the creak of a wooden sluice set up to catch the creek's water as it flowed along sounded incongruously loud compared to the maelstrom of lightning, storm, and banshee wails.

"Sanosuke," Kenshin breathed, pushing himself up marginally from the mud and churned grass. Sano rolled over painfully and huffed out a relieved breath as his friend's hand reached out and dug into the scruff of his neck. "Battousai ... retreated. The pain weakened his hold, I think, but he is finally angry, and I don't know how long it will be before he works through the seals between us."

A growl rumbled from and stretched out experimentally towards the block and felt it crumbling, the banshee's hold loosening as the blood under Kenshin's claws transferred a trace of the devil's remaining strength to the weredog.

A rising shriek shattered Kenshin's concentration and his claws dragged across Sano's back, leaving thin furrows in fur and skin. Sano yelped and flattened himself to the mud, pulling away from the rake of claws even while his head came up to track the scream. Kenshin pushed himself wearily to his feet, hands clenching and eyes squeezing shut as Battousai's awareness surged forward.

The banshee shrieked again, the rising cry distorted by hollow echoes an instant before she appeared, gore still dripping from her eyes and now saturating her dress in a long spreading stain that dripped black ichor to the ground. Her screams were accompanied by the sudden thunder of wings and a growing light cast from Yukishiro's drawn sword as his attention was drawn to the sound.

Battousai wrenched full control from Kenshin and lunged forward, sakabatou glinting in stolen light as it flipped edgewise and slashed out, tearing through the banshee's cloak and biting into her side before she dissipated into nothingness again. The devil staggered, driving one knee into the ground as he felt the banshee's drain take full hold again.

Sandaled feet squelched to the ground almost unnoticed, as the glare of light cast stark shadows from the churned up earth and torn grass. Kenshin struggled against the dark intensity of Battousai's mind, refusing to die even partially unaware of his surroundings, and filling with a sinking cold certainty that their weakened shared body could hardly stand, let alone defend them against the relatively unharmed angel.

A muttered chant started as Yukishiro began speaking to himself, rising and falling in a poetic cadence that Kenshin could not quite resolve into words. Battousai's consciousness recognized the words, and both felt the draw of power inherent in them, like the feathery chill of falling snow. They were on the precipice of the weaving spell when a knocking sounded, muffled by rock and dirt but echoing up from the ground beneath his feet.

Kenshin stilled and a thought flashed through: _The mine_. The hills, and low mountains that stood beyond them, sheltered the gold and silver that the river carried past the sluice. The ground beneath was crossed with tunnels and mines, many of them dug by inhuman hands... and the Tommyknockers were warning of a cave-in. Or _suggesting_ one. Understanding and a desperate sort of hope flared inside of him and Kenshin dragged on the final scraps of power flowing from the faltering devil beside him, channeling it into the folded steel and cord-wrapped wood in his hand. _"Dou Ryuu Sen!"_

The sakabatou's blade stabbed into the muddy ground and rocks shredded, fountaining up in a line of torn earth that cracked open the thin crust of dirt and stone covering the fae-carved tunnels below. Yukishiro's wings flared, catching the rain-heavy air and stopping his fall until a dark shape leapt behind him. Tawny fur turned gray in the cold light cast from Yukishiro's blade, and new blood splattered over torn feathers as Sanosuke's bulk crushed the pale being into the mud, sharp teeth savaging chunks of feathers and white cloth. Two snarls clashed as both dog and angel growled at each other before Sano's ears pricked forward, catching a hellish chant forcing itself into the night from an exhausted voice over a sudden spike in the definitive tang of glyph-magic.

Sano scrambled out of the way, paws raking over Yukishiro's back and using him as a launching point away from suddenly unstable ground that crumbled before the other could fully rise. A web of purple light threaded with amber raced over the ground, crackled in the air for an instant, and vanished, leaving a pale, fading imprint of itself. Sano felt every hair on his body stand on end as the effects of the spell started pulling at him, tugging at his paws and trying to drag him back towards the ruptured tunnels now standing open on the valley floor.

An ominous rumble echoed against the tall hills, and the groan of tearing stone and shifting dirt shivered through his bones. Sano crashed into the creek, stumbled on the water-smoothed stones unevenly covering the ground and finally yanked himself free of Battousai's power as the running water washed it away. Once he was standing on the far side of the creek, he looked back. In the darkness, he couldn't see any movement – person-sized or otherwise – but the lack of cloying dust in the air suggested that the earlier rain had already worked to dampen and contain the flying debris from the opened mines.

Sanosuke huffed out a sigh of unguarded relief as the silence held, and stretched mental fingers towards his human form experimentally. The werebeast surrendered instantly, dumping Sano onto his hands and knees, the last gasps of the storm's wind biting into his damp and chilled skin. After a moment he pushed himself upright, flexing newly regained hands in gratitude and turned back to find his partner.

The water of the creek tugged at him lightly as Sano forged back through it, moving carefully to avoid the debris floating down and buried in parts of it. Battousai knelt in a crouch in the center of the devastation beyond, his leathery wings furled behind him and a faint, tell-tale droop showing in his body. As he approached, Sano could smell copper and faint brimstone under the stronger scent of the rain and churned mud. The glow of runes still sparking with curls of infernal fire illuminated them in jagged intervals. Sanosuke ignored the intermittent fell light and sloughed through the mud towards the exhausted devil.

"Okay, you, give him back," Sano ordered, flexing his hands and enjoying the sensation of having fingers. Battousai looked at him, faintly curious, and Sano bit back a growl. "_Kenshin_. You're squatting in his body right now, and you're going to let him out from whatever mental corner you shoved him in to deal with those freaks. He can't do anything to patch himself up if you're loose."

"Ah, your companion is my host," Battousai mused impassively, though a glimmering light of connection appeared in his eyes. "I was placed inside of him in order to interact with the mortal world."

"Yeah, because you didn't have a body of your own to come back to any more once you were hauled through the Seal," Sanosuke told the devil flatly. "Kenshin's more equipped to act normal than you are. So back in you go before I have to knock you out and haul your sorry carcass back to the mountain." Not that he normally thought he could overpower i_Kenshin/i_, let alone Battousai, but Sano thought that with the other injured and exhausted he might just have enough of a chance to pull it off. He'd like it a lot more if Battousai just decided to see reason and go without a fuss.

Surprisingly, Battousai pulled himself straighter, shrugging off the droop of exhaustion and nodded once. His eyes closed, obscuring burning amber and the devil breathed evenly for an instant before speaking. "Hound. Thank him for me."

Kenshin's body slumped again, and staggered. Sano stepped forward and pulled the smaller man's arm over his shoulder, hauling him upright and sagging in cautious relief when Kenshin's eyes reopened without the amber glow of the possessing devil.

"Kenshin?" Sanosuke hazarded. "You in there now?"

"He's gone, Sano, that he is," Kenshin said, breathing slow and measured with conscious effort.

"You're still all horns and wings, though," Sano responded dubiously, "and it's worse than it usually looks."

"The changes are …difficult to repress just now," Kenshin nodded wearily. "But I will be fine."

Sano looked at him suspiciously before shaking his head. "Fine. Right. Kenshin, you just lost control of a General of Hell, and barely managed to get it back. We've seriously pissed off a member of the Angelic Host, and he's making deals with the nasty side of things. 'Fine' is really not a good word to use here."

Kenshin remained silent for a moment as Sano started dragging him back towards the cabin. When he did speak, it was quiet and contemplative. "Battousai was not what I expected him to be, that he is not."

"You had something to expect?" Sano asked, disbelief coloring his tone. "But he was … civil. Yukishiro sure hated him, though. Think any more of those are going to be coming after us?"

"I …" Kenshin trailed off, lips pursing and he reached up to push sodden red hair away from his face. "I don't know. Battousai would, perhaps."

Sano snorted, covering the urge to shudder at the thought of intentionally summoning the devil prince out again for something as mundane as a chat. "I don't need to know that bad." He looked around them, glad there was still no sign of the banshee or angel despite the still sparking seal of glyphs dying out of sight. The hills, however, that had become familiar in the months the two of them had lived in the abandoned prospector's cabin looked jagged and wrong, and he saw a rolling slump of earth directly where he remembered their cabin being. A breeze picked up around them, bringing the sharp tang of more rain coming. "The rain's going to start up again, and I think you buried our house. Good thing the town's not that far away: we're going to need shelter."

"We'll return tomorrow," Kenshin agreed, wincing as a jab of pain flashed up his side and pressing one clawed hand against the knitting skin and muscle. Then he shifted his hand to feel for the expected bulge of a pouch in his clothes. Thankfully, he found it quickly and slipped fingers into the pocket to find it intact and carrying a small purse, which he dragged out and passed to Sano. "The glyphs will hold much longer than that."

Sanosuke accepted the purse without comment, but shivered as the breeze started turning into a wind. "Clothes first," he said firmly. "if I can find any, we need clothes, and then we're getting out of here."

Kenshin nodded once in agreement.

. o O o .

"Kenshin …" Kaoru started then hesitated, clearly unsure whether she should continue with a question or not. Kenshin smiled gently at her and nodded his permission.

"Ask, Miss Kaoru. You shouldn't fear this one."

"Who or what is Battousai?" she asked, brow furrowing as she tried to puzzle it out for herself from what Kenshin had said about Battousai's emergence when confronted with the angel Yukishiro. "A separate personality or a different entity entirely? You aren't him anymore, but you don't _feel_ possessed. Anyone possessed would have two sets of emotions inside of them, and usually two souls. You only have one…and you are not i_human__/i_, but you don't seem to be wildly different from any other demon I've met either."

"I am and I am not, Miss Kaoru. But that is a story for another day," Kenshin said mildly and held up his hands placatingly as her expression darkened in irritation. "I mean simply that it is a long tale, not that I would not tell it if you so wished."

"Kenshin's right, Jou-chan," Sano agreed, walking up behind them with a mud-encrusted rifle in his hands and a bag thrown over his shoulder. "It's a _really_ long story, and we should probably wait until your bar's restocked before telling it."

"You've heard it, then?" she asked, turning a pointed frown Sano's way. "Even though no one else remembers any of this, except maybe a few of the older and crazier members of the Host?"

"My pack is from a mountain with a long memory," Sano answered simply. "A really long memory. That's how Kenshin and I ended up being partnered in the first place. Battousai wasn't lying when he thought I was a hellhound. Part of me is."

Kaoru blinked at him in dawning comprehension before squeezing her eyes shut and rubbing at them with one hand. "Long story, right." Her hand dropped away from her face and planted itself as a fist on her hip. "One I want to hear, gentlemen. As your landlady, I want to know what might come crashing through my door."

Kenshin and Sano exchanged a glance before nodding quickly. "Miss Kaoru, we should simply …" Kenshin started, only to find himself cut off by one of Kaoru claws pressing into the fabric across his chest as she rounded on him.

"If you're thinking anything along the lines of 'leave for your own protection, Kaoru', then stop right there, Mr. Himura. I already accepted both of you into my house; just let me know what to expect before you get stalked home. Now," her eyebrows lifted and her eyes brightened with amusement. "How did you two end up in Hill Hollow? Bloodwood's closer from here. A lot closer."

Sano fidgeted and muttered under his breath until he caught Kenshin looking back at him and raising a curious eyebrow. "It was dark, and I couldn't see the stars, okay? You weren't exactly helping either, Kenshin."

"Ah, that I was not," Kenshin ducked his head in agreement, or to hide laughter. Sano glared at him suspiciously before Kenshin looked up and stepped back from Kaoru, looking beyond them in the opposite direction they had come. "As we are almost there, perhaps we should continue on to Bloodwood. Perhaps things all of us have lost could be replaced. We have enough for some of it, at least, and the bounty office will have contracts to help replace more."

Kaoru shifted her weight, looking uneasy for a moment before shrugging her uninjured shoulder and nodding her acceptance. "Tae would appreciate having something on tap until the next stage brings the new stock," she said, walking away to retrieve her wandering horse's reins. "So long as we make it back before dark."

"Wouldn't want the cook to worry," Sano chuckled, shaking his head and following as they set off.

"Not if you want to eat," Kaoru said cheerfully to him. "Or me to cook for you."

"Thought Tae didn't let you in the kitchen," Sano said, looking slightly confused.

Kaoru's smile turned decidedly sharp as she nodded in agreement. "I regularly set it on fire when I cook. And half the time it still turns out half raw and half fine charcoal."

Sano grimaced and rubbed a hand at the back of his neck, making his spiky brown hair spike up even further in protest. "In that case, I think I'd prefer Kenshin cooking. No offense, Jou-chan, my stomach just likes to live.

Kenshin twitched almost imperceptibly before a smile tugged at his mouth and he sighed with a shake of his head. "Oro."

* * *

**Kat's Notes:**

This was probably one of the most difficult stories I've had to write in recent memory, and I can't even tell you why. I'm mostly happy with it, but I'm glad it's finished as well.

Also, since several people that have read this and questioned it: this world really doesn't have anything to do with ours at all. I'm completely making it up as I go along. It's an indulgence of mythology on my part more than anything, and I've been playing scramble with all of it. The conflict between the angels and devils in particular is very different from tradition. Just go with the MST3K mantra and everything should be fine.

Also, I've started a weekly fic post over at my LiveJournal and post something new every Saturday. It's a mixture of original and fanfic, but hands down, the best way to see the quickest updates from me. I'll be moving most of those here eventually, and they're better edited by the time I do. But if you're ever curious, you're certainly welcome to drop buy and read. All the fanfic are public entries, so you don't need an account there.

As always, please ask if you're curious/confused about anything. Or point out bone-headed mistakes on my part. One of the hazards of writing half-asleep like I often do is I make the strangest and stupidest of errors.

**Creatures and Words of Interest**

The scripture quote up there is Isaiah 14:12-15.

_Angel – _a race of typically beneficent winged beings that live on one of the higher planes, but are sometimes found traveling the lower planes. Usually, they are hesitant to reveal their true forms.

_  
__Banshee_ – A ghost-like unseelie fae also known as a bean sidhe, bean nighe, or Gwrach y Rhibyn. She's most often heard wailing over the glens and moors, prefers to be near lakes or running water, and is rarely seen. When she wails over a family's home, it warns that someone in the family is about to die. Some of these are more beneficent than others and most of them have the unseelie knack for blood magic.

_Devil __– _A supposedly mythical race that once destroyed the world. There are many garbled myths about the devils, and their home plane of Hell. It's generally accepted that they were either destroyed long ago, or never existed at all and were created as bogeymen by a collection of races that include actual bogeymen.

_Succubus_ – a shapeshifting female demon that feeds off emotions and can influence them in anyone she's made a tactile connection with. Each succubus has different emotional flavors she prefers, and some are healthier emotions than others. The male version would be an incubus.

_Tommyknockers _- "little miners" or "mountain ghosts". These little guys knock on the mine walls before an imminent and life-threatening collapse. They also steal tools and sometimes save miners who don't move fast enough.

_Werekin_ – Any seemingly-human being born with an alternate animal shape. They are shapeshifters, but are restrained by taking only the form of their particular beasts, unlike other shapeshifting beings who have a much wider range of alternate forms.


End file.
